The Napthine government is not ruling out changes to Victoria's abortion laws ahead of an investigation into a doctor who refused to give a couple an abortion referral because they wanted a boy. The state government said it was interested in the outcome of the Medical Board of Victoria's investigation into Mark Hobart, a pro-life doctor who has been accused of breaking the state's abortion laws.

Tech-savvy kids now spend more time online or watching TV than they do at school and should be put on a "media diet'' of two hours a day, paediatricians warned. Doctors have been advised to start grilling parents about their kids' online habits to prevent obesity, bullying and sexual problems.

Deborra-Lee Furness has urged the federal government to adopt significant new laws that will allow prospective parents a better chance at adoption. Ms Furness, who is the mother of two adopted children with husband Hugh Jackman, says Australia's adoption laws are deeply flawed and stopped her and Jackman from starting a family in their home nation more than a decade ago.

It was a rainy afternoon and six-year-old Lachlan was searching for his favourite cartoons on the family iPad. His search returned naked adults in strange positions. Rough positions. Lachlan didn't know he had accidently stumbled across porn. "I want to rape you in the ass," was one of the lines delivered by a male actor. In Lachlan's mind anything related to bottoms was hilarious so he took the iPad to school to show his friends. His kindergarten friends.

A growing clamour to tackle sexually explicit pop videos will find a new voice this week with the launch of a campaign group to demand cinema-style ratings on lewd content aimed at teenage and pre-teenage girls. Tomorrow's event comes after the headteacher of a leading private girls' school this weekend joined other high-profile critics of the pop singer Miley Cyrus, who has unleashed an extraordinarily sexualised new image on her young fanbase. Jo Heywood of Heathfield School called on parents and teachers to give girls alternative images to the ones being peddled to them.

A remote corner of India has earned a reputation as the surrogacy capital of the world. Infertile couples , and the women who give birth to their children, say it's a win-win. But as CNN's Malika Kapur explains, critics complain about exploitation. It's a long wait, nine months spent chatting, cooking, sewing, nuturing their swollen bellies. "Just like you give a room out to rent, I give my womb on rent," says Manjula. Surrogacy in India is booming, thanks to the low cost of the procedure, availability of surrogates and skilled doctors.

What is the appropriate punishment for taking a young man's life? On Friday a NSW Supreme Court Judge weighed up the facts and found the scales of justice had been tipped at exactly 48 months in jail. In a decision that surprised many, Justice Stephen Campbell sentenced Kieran Loveridge to four years' jail for the July 2012 manslaughter of 18-year-old Thomas Kelly.

No one should be blamed for thinking the so-called sexual revolution is out of control on the nation's college campuses. On the one hand, the lack of basic respect between young men and women has led to an explosion in the number of non-consensual sexual encounters that occur each and every day. On the other, however, the use of taxpayer dollars to educate – a word chosen advisedly – college-age students about best sexual practices has crossed the line to the point where it has reached the absurd.

Belgium is mooting an unprecedented law that would allow the voluntary euthanasia of children. Voluntary euthanasia is intentionally ending a life, with a patient’s consent. Different forms of this are legal for adults in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, although there are differences in the grounds on which it is allowed, for example if someone is terminally ill.

Brendan Fevola was once footy's most bankable star - his dead eye in front of goals earned him about $6 million throughout his AFL career and his larger-than-life personality ensured a juicy contract with The Footy Show.

Renters priced out of inner Melbourne and pushed to the cheaper urban fringe are losing their homes at an alarming rate as Centrelink cuts and outer suburban isolation plunge thousands into debt. Eviction rates in Melbourne's outer-ring areas have soared by up to 60 per cent, well ahead of the Melbourne average, which has also shown a marked increase.

It's no secret that the true purpose of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is to "help bring marriage equality closer." ENDA would elevate sexual orientation to a protected status under workplace nondiscrimination laws. Indeed, laws have already been used to achieve legal recognition for homosexual unions in several states, even when supposed safeguards are included in the legislation.

For four decades AusAID’s iconic graduate program has been magnet for the nation’ s bright and idealistic young things, eager to make a difference in the world. But the program has now fallen victim to the Abbott government’s $4.5 billion cuts to Australia’s foreign aid program and experts and politicians say the move will hurt the country’s international standing.

ABC election analyst Antony Green says the outcome of the Senate vote in Western Australia would have come down to a solitary vote. The Australian Electoral Commission on Friday released the party-by-party tally of votes counted in the days after the election.

The sex trade in Ireland today is thriving and pervasive. It is happening in apartments, hotel rooms and premises in even the smallest village in Ireland – right now. The movement of prostitution from the cities to more rural locations has been a feature of the sex trade for some time now. This is facilitated by the manner in which organisation of prostitution has become increasingly mobile, using phones and internet sites to advertise and operate. This allows organisers to remain at arms-length and more difficult to detect.

Jakarta has rejected Australian requests to send asylum seekers back to Indonesia on two occasions since the start of Operation Sovereign Borders, the Abbott government has revealed. In a rare move, given the secrecy surrounding the Coalition's border security regime, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison revealed on Sunday the Coalition had made four requests to Indonesia to accept asylum seekers that Australia had picked up in Indonesia's search and rescue region.

Last Friday, November 1, the Federal appeals court in Washington DC ruled 2-1 that the so-called contraceptive mandate, a regulation under Obama’s Affordable Care Act that requires employers over a certain size to provide insurance for free contraceptives, morning-after pills, and sterilization, most likely violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The unabated violence in Karachi's volatile Lyari neighbourhood has forced its entire Christian community to move to safer areas The Express Tribune has learnt. Threats, killings, interferences in personal matters, drugs, extortion and rape of young girls were some of the reasons that compelled the out-migration from one of the oldest parts of Lyari, called Slaughter House.

Family First NZ has written to the Howick and Eastern Bus Company asking them to remove an objectionable billboard on the back of their buses. The image advertising Lady Gaga’s latest album features the partly-covered naked singer in a provocative pose. “We expect this raunch culture from shock artists like Lady Gaga, but to display it on a public bus often used as a school bus is unacceptable. The image simply objectifies women as sex objects and is part of the agenda of a pornified music world,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.

The Florida Supreme Court has ruled that a woman who donated an egg to her lesbian partner has parental rights to the
child, and it has ordered a lower court to determine custody and visitation rights. The case involves two women, identified only by their initials, who began raising the child together. One donated an egg that was fertilised and implanted in the other, who gave birth in 2004. But the couple split up two years later, and the birth mother eventually moved to Australia with the child.